Monaco’s ‘Crown Jewels’ have been drawn right into a money scandal

Claude Palmero has made fairly a couple of claims towards the royal household of Monaco.

In case you are not aware of the identify, Mr Palmero is a former accountant who was accountable for palace funds for greater than twenty years, however was fired final 12 months by Prince Albert.

Since then, his ‘notebooks’ have emerged during which it’s prompt that Princess Charlene requested eyewatering sums of cash whereas hiring unlawful immigrants on lower than £90-a-day. The princess’s private spending allowance is alleged to have rocketed to greater than £1million-a-year.

Charlene’s husband Prince Albert has responded with a press release assertion saying: ‘The assaults that [Palmero] makes towards me and towards the state [of Monaco] and its establishments present his true nature and the little respect … he has for the household and the principality.’

But the controversy continues.

Intriguingly, it has additionally been alleged that the Royal Princesses, Caroline, 67, and Stephanie, 58 – Albert’s sisters – have handled the Monaco ‘Crown Jewels’ as ‘their very own private equipment’.

(Although, as they as soon as belonged to their mom and grandmother, Princess Grace, Caroline and Stephanie may properly reply ‘why not?’) 

Formally talking there aren’t any crown jewels within the principality.

But there are some great items of household jewelry all the identical – match for a princess and presumably a queen – as these footage present.

Cartier Pearl Drop Tiara

The grandest piece within the princely assortment is the Cartier Pearl Drop Tiara, commissioned by Princess Charlotte in 1949 when her son, Rainier III, grew to become Monaco’s monarch after the dying of her father, Louis II.

It is made in gold and platinum and set in its entirety with diamonds, giant baroque pearls suspended ‘en tremblant’ from a collection of intricate arches, on high of that are leaves.

Charlotte wore it in the course of the festivities of Rainier and Grace Kelly’s wedding ceremony in 1956, however when she died – it was left to the Collection however solely Princess Caroline has worn it since in public.

The Sapphire Suite 

This was additionally made for Princess Charlotte, probably by Cartier, and includes a necklace and a pair of earrings – each set with sapphires and diamonds.

The necklace has a big cabochon minimize sapphire within the centre, with smaller oval minimize sapphires set interspersed with two rows of tiny diamonds and sapphires; the button earrings are easy oval sapphires surrounded by diamonds.

There are additionally two matching brooches. Princess Charlotte wore the demi-parure for the official pictures after the non secular wedding ceremony of her son in Monaco’s Saint Nicholas Cathedral in May 1956.

Subsequently Princess Caroline has worn them a fantastic many instances over the previous 46 years – together with alongside her mother and father in 1979 at Monaco’s Red Cross Ball, after which each the 1986 and 2013 Monaco Red Cross Balls; on the wedding ceremony of the now King and Queen of Denmark in 2004, and plenty of extra.

Princess Grace’s Pearl and Diamond Parure 

Another engagement current for Grace Kelly, earlier than she grew to become Princess Grace – was the beautiful pearl and diamond parure by Van Cleef & Arpels, chosen by her as an engagement reward from Prince Rainier.

Although it wasn’t created as a parure, and the 4 items didn’t really come from the identical VCA assortment, Grace typically wore them collectively as such, thereby creating a collection herself.

It includes a three-strand necklace, with two diamond swirl motifs; a three-strand bracelet with diamond blossom motifs and an identical ring set with an oval pearl; a pair of earrings with a baguette and marquise formed leaf sample.

She had at all times been an enormous fan of pearls and as soon as stated that “a girl wants ropes and ropes of pearls”.

Princess Caroline wore the parure as a whole for the first time in March 2019 at Monaco’s Rose Ball, which benefits the Princess Grace Foundation.

Princess Grace’s Cartier Diamond Festoon Necklace

But Princess Caroline isn’t the only Monaco royal to wear the family’s jewels.

At her wedding in 2019 to Carole Bouquet’s son Dimitri Rassam, Charlotte Casiraghi wore her grandmother’s Cartier diamond festoon necklace.

Grace Kelly retired from acting in 1956 to marry Prince Rainier. This was her Cartier diamond festoon necklace

Princess Grace’s granddaughter, Charlotte Casiraghi wore the necklace to her wedding in 2019

Princess Grace’s received the necklace, set with 64 brilliant and baguette cut diamonds, from Prince Rainier at the same time as her second diamond engagement ring. They were both bought at Cartier in New York.

Princess Charlotte’s Floral Corsage

Princess Charlene, Albert’s wife, wore a beautiful piece woven through her hair at the wedding in 2011, instead of a traditional tiara.

The corsage looked stunning teamed with her veil and Armani Prive dress

Princess Caroline has worn the floral corsage several times, sometimes in parts. Here the jewels make a pair of earrings

Once belonging to Princess Charlotte, the piece is called a traine de corsage, a popular 19th century jewel created from several brooches clipped together and draped over the neckline of a dress, most often a garland of flowers – as the Monaco one is, and includes wild roses, leaves and buds created in an array of different cut diamonds.

As Charlene explained in an interview with Vogue before the wedding: ‘I’m not wearing a tiara, instead, Princess Caroline has lent me some beautiful diamond hair clips which belonged to her grandmother.’

Caroline has worn the floral corsage several times all together as a tiara; and in parts as a pair of earrings, a brooch and as a stomacher.

Cartier Bains de Mer Tiara 

The Société des Bains de Mer, Monaco’s largest company which owns several resorts in the principality and is also partly owned by the Princely Family, presented Princess Grace with what is known as the Cartier Bains de Mer Tiara, in the colours of Monaco – red and white, as a wedding present.

Nicole Kidman played the title role in the 2014 movie Princess Grace. Here she appears in a replica Cartier necklace and tiara

She first wore it at a Gala Performance at the magnificent Opera House the evening after the Civil Wedding in April 1956.

The tiara consists of three upright motifs, each set with an enormous cabochon ruby from which pavé-set diamond waves sweep upwards, attached to a slim diamond band.

These individual pieces can be detached and worn as brooches, as dress or hair clips. Alternatively, the whole piece can be transformed into a necklace.

Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie have worn elements of this parure.

Prince Rainier later gave his wife a pair of fabulous ruby and diamond earrings and a ruby and diamond ring to match.